Software appliances generally involve the encapsulation of a pre-defined application or applications with a reduced version of an operating system (OS), such as the Linux™ operating system. Software appliances in one regard thereby represent a relatively compact, ready-to-install application solution and can be distributed via media such as CD-ROM discs, or downloaded for installation. Software appliances can be distributed and installed in a variety of environments, including stand-alone and networked environments. A population of software appliances can be managed on a network from a centralized monitor or host, including to track the software provisioning, user authorizations, execution states, and other attributes of the deployed appliances.
In cases, however, a network administrator may wish to set up a set of software appliances specifically in a network cloud environment. In general, a cloud-based architecture deploys a set of hosted resources such as processors, operating systems, software and other components that can be combined or strung together to form virtual machines. A user or customer can request the instantiation of a virtual machine or set of machines from those resources from a central server or management system to perform intended tasks or applications. For example, a user may wish to set up and instantiate a virtual server from the cloud to create a storefront to market products or services on a temporary basis. The user can lease or subscribe to the set of resources needed to build and run the set of instantiated virtual machines on a comparatively short-term basis, such as hours or days, for their intended application. The advent of cloud-based computing architectures has opened new possibilities for the rapid and scalable deployment of virtual Web stores, media outlets, and other online sites or services.
In the context of a set of virtual appliances that are instantiated in a cloud environment, issues in the configuration and deployment of the appliances can arise. For instance, while on-premise appliance monitors are known for the implementation of hardware-based appliance installations, in the case of virtual appliances a user may not have access to an on-premise server or other platform to execute appliance monitoring and control. Even if the user had access to a regular appliance monitor platform, that platform typically would be configured to connect to physical instances of the set of appliances, as opposed to transient virtual appliances executing in the cloud. It may be desirable to provide methods and systems for the management of cloud-based virtual appliances that themselves can be supported by the cloud, as opposed to requiring on-premise infrastructure.